Using your slam words

Words don't always come easy, even if they are all around us. While we're telling and listening to stories all the time, doing it on stage with a microphone can make the experience all the more exhilarating or terrifying, depending on your outlook.

Add to that composing your own poetry or prose, and reciting it to an audience who will judge your performance, and you have a word slam.

Slamduggery in Launceston is organiser Lucinda Shannon's idea of exhilaration: challenging yourself to deliver the written words to an audience in an enthralling way.

"I think that if something makes you feel a bit nervous, then that is exactly why you should do it.

"There are a few spoken word nights in Launceston, but slams are a little bit different, because there is a competitive edge to it."

As it says on their Facebook page, 'it is a place to tell stories real and imaginary, recite poems, deliver stream of consciousness rants, recount love letters, death letters, memories painful or sweet, comic routines, or erotic short fiction'.

Ms Shannon has seen the popularity of word slams elseware, and decided to organise an event in Launceston late last year.

"On the mainland, on the big island, slams are ridiculously popular."

There is a four minute limit for the performance, and audience members vote for their favourite.

Ms Shannon's passion for words extends to her own poetry, writing a novel, and performing regularly at the slam events.

While she has studied law, the spoken word has become the main focus for Ms Shannon at the moment, even though she concedes there are parallels between the two.

"I really love talking, I really like reading, and it's really fun being up behind a microphone.

"There were all these other things that I had put off doing, like writing and art."

Slamduggery is being held once a month at Dicken's Ciderhouse in Launceston.

If you want to perform at Slamduggery you can just turn up on the night, but it is preferred that you register via their Facebook page so that your spot is confirmed.

You might be nervous enough without having to worry if you have a slot on stage.